What's the Connection? No Easy Answers for People With Eating Disorders and Drug Abuse

Wheel access duration in rats: II. Day-night and within-session changes.

“…In feeding, the eating disorder bulimia is defined by high-frequency binge eating (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; see also Davis & Claridge, 1998), a pattern characteristic of drug and alcohol addiction. Dopamine D 2 receptors have recently been reported to be decreased in addicts and extremely obese individuals (Wang et al, 2001), and this finding has raised the issue of the comorbidity of eating disorders and drug abuse (Vastag, 2001). With the spread of electronic gambling devices, there has been a concern about the rise in pathological gambling, which has been described as “addiction without a drug” (Blume, 1997).…”

Treating Eating Disorders Mindfully

“…26 It has been estimated that between 30% and 70% of patients diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, and up to 18% of patients with anorexia nervosa, abuse-or are addicted to-drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. 27 A crosscultural study of 979 persons with eating disorders compared with 785 healthy controls likewise found that subjects with eating disorders had significantly higher lifetime and current tobacco and general drug, but not alcohol, use. 28 Diet pill use was among the compulsive weight-control behaviors and types of substance abuse seen in 1345 women.…”

Ethnicity and Breast Cancer: Factors Influencing Differences in Incidence and Outcome

“…The infl uence of breast cancer risk factor distribution on differences in incidence and clinical characteristics associated with ethnicity/race has received limited attention ( 9 ) . Consequently, we explored these relationships in a cohort from the ethnically diverse Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study ( 10 ) .…”